we had an early thanksgiving so seasonal hiring for the holidays offset the superstorm sandy. in addition, i think -- and where i would differ from jared just a little bit and we rarely do -- the underlying economy is consideri considerably stronger. if you take into account the number of baby boomers that are retiring, that has not been talked about and does effect the labor force participation rate. the broadest measure of unemployment, the unemployed and those who left the workforce fell to 14.7%. so i think things are getting better. what i'm most afraid of is the type of talk we heard from speaker boehner and maxine waters. they are taking us to the cliff on both sides. the fact that entitlements is off the table is crazy. my friend david kotac said we should go all go to our window as was done in the movie "network" and yell out the window and say, i'm mad as hell. quit messing around with the economy. >> jared, what do you think? >> listen, if john is correct that the economy is even doing a little better than we think, all the more reason -- it kind of underscores my b